Head of Affluent - Consumer Banking at Absa Bank Limited

Job Summary

Reporting to the Consumer Banking Director, the Head of Affluent Business has the responsibility of:

• Building a segment led business for the affluent segment by providing people, commercial and strategic leadership as well as driving operational execution.
• Working closely with the other Consumer Banking teams and internal partners including Business Banking and Corporate and Investment banking to define and implement the strategy to grow our affluent client base, deepen product penetration and improve the overall segment profitability.
• Driving and deliver performance in Sales, customer management / experience, operations, controls, and expense management for the Affluent Segment covering both Premier-Wealth, Premier and Prestige business segments.
• Meeting and exceed the commercial targets through sales, service and product development.
• Devising and implementing Sales and Service strategy and optimize the Affluent Network
• Providing business leadership & operational excellence to all customers including internal customers (staff)
• Developing, enhance and implement an effective / robust controls and processes across the Affluent Segment.
• Ensuring all local regulations and corporate policies are adhered to in the Affluent Segment
• Working with the regional and country partners to improve/increase the client value proposition, key services, client experience and market penetration.

Job Description

Key Accountabilities/ Deliverables

Commercial / Business Management

• Define and implement a consistent Affluent segment strategy balancing regulatory requirements, customer profitability, defining and aligning the business and servicing model with the value and cost-to-serve to define cross-sell, up-sell or optimization strategy.
• Market and competitor analysis including benchmarking value propositions.
• Acquisition and Engagement Model: Develop and implement optimized models to improve acquisition quality and momentum and increase revenue per client.
• Performance Management of segment P&L, key metrics and competitor benchmarking
• Reinvigorate Value Proposition: Development and roll-out of differentiated, consistent value proposition for the Affluent segment (including coverage model, products, pricing, affluence tiering, etc.)
• Cross-Business Partnership and Relationship Management: Collaborate effectively with other internal stakeholders e.g. Corporate Banking to drive sales momentum from top companies (MNCs and local)
• Performance Management: Drive premier and prestige banking teams to deliver improved sales effectiveness including NTB Acquisition & Quality and Channel P&L (Revenue, Rev/Client, Expenses)
• Spearhead a holistic customer acquisition, service and customer portfolio management strategy across the Affluent segment to meet the set sales targets.
• Ensure the balance sheet and fee income targets relating to portfolio management and relationships deepening are met.

Ensuring the Affluent segment is positioned to meet Absa strategic needs whilst meeting standards in terms of;

• Physical look and feel.
• Quality of staffing
• Quality of customer service
• Embed best practices to drive growth of ‘Involved and engaged’ customer portfolio in the Affluent segment through Customer Life-stage Management (CLM) framework.
• Liaise with key functional stakeholders and appropriate organizational chains to drive the Affluent Segment agenda effectively.
• Work with other businesses in AGL to be able to leverage of their experiences through exchange of the best practices.
• Build rapport with high net-worth clients to increase product penetration and wallet share
• Share best practice and market intelligence to review and rebase line strategy whenever the market demands it to ensure we remain competitive.
• Performance KPI will include the following aligned to the financial plans:
  • Product Sales: Loans, Liability accounts, Cards, Mortgages, Banc-assurance as per financial plans
  • Liability balance sheet growth
  • Asset balance sheet growth
  • Impairment performance
  • Income and quality
  • Product penetration levels driven by CLM.
  • Cost performance 
  • E- Channels and digital penetration / usage
  • Customer satisfaction/NPS scores
  • Customer attrition / Retention
• Strategic alliances and partnerships that enhance brand loyalty.

Customer Experience/Relationship Management

• Ensure design and delivery of the Affluent Customer Experience strategy to support the achievement of the segment and product objectives, as well as the ARO Strategy.
• Develop and implement customer experience processes for the Affluent segment.
• The customer experience strategy encapsulates the following areas:
• Products: Current Accounts, Transactional Accounts, Savings Accounts, Fixed & Call Deposit Accounts, Personal Loans (Secured and Unsecured), Loans (Secured and Unsecured), Mortgages and Credit Cards.
• Channels: Premier Centres, branches, Digital – Hello Money, Absa Internet Banking, Absa Mobile Banking and any other channels the bank may launch.
• To embed portfolio management and relationship deepening expertise

Operations / Controls

• Ensure the effective controls and processes frameworks are in place to enable:
• Compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Effective operational risk and rigor management.
• Business resumption, and contingency planning, including critical incident reporting and effective implementation of the BCM.
• Drive controls and fraud awareness through a robust plan across the Affluent segment
• Monitor and track key risk indicators and key performance indicators.
• Embed the use of appropriate Risk Control Assessments within Affluent team.
• Ensure that new and existing Process designs meet the Governance and Control standards.
• Develop and embed a policy of lending risk and impairment management that complements the functions of the Retail Credit Team and contributes to the overall reduction of lending risk and impairment in the business.
• Promote fraud awareness by all staff, ensuring appropriate action is taken on fraud incidences and embedding appropriate fraud detection and prevention controls.
• Ensure adequate prepared for all external and internal audits and that all exceptional items are closed within the agreed timelines.

People Management        

• Develop effective organization structure serving Affluent cost effectively. Embed efficient organization structure to support NTB Sales, relationship management, service and operations.
• Champion the cultural change needed to reinforce consistent Sales, Service and Portfolio management disciplines where there is absolute accountability for value.
• Support and guide People Development to ensure optimal utilization and delivery with the right number of people with the right skills at the right cost to achieve business targets/objectives.
• Ensure, together with HR, that Premier and Prestige staff are adequately trained / certified as required by internal policies and regulatory requirements.
• Resource, develop and retain a motivated high performing team committed to achieving success.
• Agree challenging performance and development objectives for all direct reports providing regular feedback/coaching to ensure their maximum potential is achieved.
• Cultivate confidence in the Premier and Prestige leadership and inspire them to be passionate about the customer experience agenda.
• Foster a positive, prideful work environment with open communications, timely resolution of conflicts and regulatory compliance.
• Discuss and finalize performance development plans and ratings for your direct reports.
• Create development opportunities within your segment by embedding succession planning and identification of potential leaders.
• Motivate staff and ensure they are recognized through the Absa recognition schemes.

Knowledge and Skills

• Degree holder in Business; MBA is highly regarded.
• Minimum of 15 years business experience with a focus in financial services in a demanding sales and service environment
• Deep knowledge of the Investment and Wealth Management business, regulatory and supervisory requirements, corporate policies and procedures, clients, competitors, economics, etc.
• Strong understanding of Retail Banking products, channels & customer segments in Africa
• Knowledge of competitor and local market activity within the Affluent segment
• Extensive experience of working effectively with senior managers and managing large teams
• An understanding of consumer business globally and in Africa, client segmentation, value proposition creation and client portfolio management
• Detailed understanding of the full range of Retail and Business Banking services and product set
• Detailed understanding of Absa Retail business processes and other associated processes
• Detailed understanding of Absa risk policy
• Detailed understanding of Absa Regional Operations RBB strategy, operating structure, and interfaces with other functions
• Detailed understanding of Absa structure and interfaces
• Detailed knowledge of Absa People policies and procedures

Technical Competencies

• Building and managing business relationships at a senior level
• Demonstrated leadership in defining and executing business strategy setting clear objectives, measuring and reporting progress.
• Strategic, logical and creative thinker with an ability to translate strategy into pragmatic tactics that achieve desired results.
• Strong, judgment, analytical, problem solving and decision-making skills.
• People management and development
• High impact communication and presentation skills with ability to structure cogent business analyses.
• Proven ability to deliver results through others, strong influencing skills.
• Personal integrity, self-motivation and self-management.
• Sales and relationship management techniques
• Customer Centric
• Commercial awareness
• Management of performance
• Resource Management
• Culture change management
• Team building – building and developing high performance through collaboration to maximize organizational capability.
• Planning and organizing
• Budget and cost control

Additional critical qualities:

• Proactive to detail, anticipatory and futuristic about business drivers.
• Passionate about delivering performance information effectively.

Education

• Bachelors Degree and Professional Qualifications: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)